Design

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California

I feel so fortunate that, as the former Digital Coordinator for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, I was able to occasionally create graphic design assets for them beyond my regular scope of work.

Booklet

My favorite project was for their 2017 Capitol Day event with the theme of PROTECT. EMPOWER. PERSIST. I designed a 28-page booklet for the big lobby day (which fit into our retro fanny packs and included a hand-drawn map of the Capitol and our event setup), along with some super cute illustrations for a button-making station. Here’s a sampling of some of the pages (you can see the logo I created next to the Agenda page).

Buttons

I had a few goals for illustrating buttons for 2017 Capitol Day:

Design hella cute buttons that people will love.

Design buttons that can be used at any Planned Parenthood 501(C)(3) or 501(C)(4) event.

Don’t let old logo drafts go to waste.

To achieve my goals:

I illustrated lots of racially and gender diverse folks using a variety of birth control methods, from the pill to paired use of a condom and ovulation calendar.

Recycled old logo drafts (easy)

I also illustrated myself as one of the button variations. Can you tell which one is me? It’s pretty obvious, but I’ll probably still call you a racist! Ha!

Legislator Door Signs

Door signs have to be professional, punchy, and fun for our supportive legislators in the California State Capitol. Here are a few that I really enjoyed creating!

350 Sacramento

Climate change activism is critical. But it’s hard to get buy-in if your messaging and branding is the kind of negative doom-and-gloom content that makes the average person anxious and hopeless. So when I found 350 Sacramento in 2011, my mission was clear. The small group of committed activists was already doing good work, but I wanted to ensure they would be taken seriously not only by potential volunteers, but also by the city, local businesses, other stakeholders, and, hey, maybe even the state.

To legitimize 350 Sacramento, I worked on establishing professional branding of their outreach materials. Given that I have zero graphic design experience (but I have a background in studio art), this was a journey. I started creating flyers with Photoshop, then later graduated to Illustrator and InDesign.

Create a professional brand that the City of Sacramento and organizations like SMUD would take seriously

After seeing the organization grow from a core group of 5-8 people over several years to what is now officially a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization with plenty of volunteers, I feel glad and also a little burned out, so I have more or less taken a break from volunteering for the time being. Right now, I’m just looking for the time, energy, and opportunities to further my growth as a graphic designer. If you like my work and you’re a small non-profit or progressive organization in need of services, hit me up. I like making money, but given the need, I will gladly do pro bono work for your cause.

League 4 Climate Justice

As part of making 350 Sacramento a fun and family-friendly organization, I had a vision to create a comic and cult following of the League 4 Climate Justice, featuring superheroes Li Fe, Broc, and Flo.

I ended up not having the resources to fully carry out this project, but I did manage to create:

a logo

membership cards

social media graphics

some fun Monthly Hero Memos that included various resources and actions people could take (I guess I was really into QR codes at the time, too – wamp wamp)

Overall, it was an exciting project that I would like to have adventures with again one day.

State of California

In 2016 I received the exciting opportunity to do the base cover design for the 20th anniversary of the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection’s Forestland Steward quarterly newsletter, which you can read in full here. Below is the final edited version, a collaboration between myself and the long-time editor!

Experience Camps

My friend really impressed me when she said she took a week of vacation every year to volunteer as a counselor at Experience Camps, an inspiring program to help youth navigate loss and grief. It was very exciting to do some design work for such a great and necessary organization.

Hollywood Park Neighborhood Association (HPNA)

I’m now doing some work for HPNA, mostly their CommuniTree subcommittee, which is working to expand the number and quality of trees in their neighborhood. As you know by now, I’m really about saving the planet, so this is right up my alley for work that I enjoy doing.

I didn’t realize this until putting these two flyers side-by-side, by I guess I am really into diagonals right now!